More people want to live in walkable neighbourhoods, which our Planning Gods have decided in their wisdom to keep in limited supply. Housing suppliers can be tempted to “game” the rules that no longer reflect reality, in order to meet popular demand. … Continue reading Planning Games
SO, the City is considering five separate road underpasses or overpasses in the area where Woodroffe makes it out to Barrhaven. Initial costs are $430 million dollars. An admittedly very preliminary guesstimate. Not including the cost of construction detours, moving … Continue reading About those Barrhaven underpasses …
It is universally acknowledged in real estate circles that walkable neighbourhoods are worth more than the same houses in unwalkable neighbourhoods. Pity the poor folks in unwalkable neighbourhoods. Many no doubt wanted to live in Westboro or the Glebe, but … Continue reading A modest proposal for a walkable city tax, Paris edition
Cyclists and pedestrians that use the ever-more-popular Trillium pathway have enjoyed experienced many detours and perambulations over the last two years. Probably most frustrating has been the circuitous routings for those trying to get to or from the Ottawa River … Continue reading Trillium pathway to River to reopen
Bureaucracies are wonderful machines for obfuscating responsibility. Even the simplest, most mundane task is endlessly parsed into hundreds of discrete tasks and assigned to a variety of people … staff, consultants, and “public opinion” and politicians. When something goes wrong, … Continue reading Who is responsible for bad street design?
A number of interesting changes and opportunities for west side bus routes are coming up in the next few years. Let’s play the bus route planning game! The official plans: To “encourage” people to use the new Confederation Line, and … Continue reading The bus route planning game
With the recent spate of loser attacks on civilian populations in Germany, at a Christmas Market; France on NY Eve; or Manchester’s teeny bopper concert; or New York’s Broadway; or a tour bus in Egypt … I found myself looking … Continue reading Making Ottawa safe for whom?
Where were you when the lights went out last Tuesday? And where will you be if they go out again? Was it just last Tuesday that I left the Carnegie Library on Rosemont Avenue and browsed flowers at the Parkdale Market? … Continue reading Where were you when the lights went out?
Here is a quick test text from @Hansonthebike to test Eric’s link to Twitter. A picture from Sparks Street this morning. Busy at Escape Bicycle tours. @Hansonthebike took his family from Toronto for an 18 km spin along the canal, … Continue reading Sparks Street this Saturday Race Weekend morning
So I gather Vancouver has built a few centre-draining streets, and is considering them to be a regular feature of some future streets. Amongst other features, pedestrians don’t get splashed or perpetually soaked in salt spray all winter. If the … Continue reading Revolutionary street design avoids splashing people
As a city, we lack much experience integrating medical facilities and transit. The old Civic bus stops are way out on Carling Avenue, definitely not designed for user convenience, and co-located with year-round curbside puddles and offering free salt washes all … Continue reading A new Civic and that Trillium Connection
While people refer to the new hospital as a “building”, I think that is just convenient shorthand. It’s more likely to be a series of buildings, built over many years. The new hospital needs an organizing system, a spine. I … Continue reading Hospital Design as anatomy
The folks that run the Civic are starting to reach out to the surrounding communities (and presumably other interest groups of all sorts) to gather input as to what we want to see at the new Civic. Who am I … Continue reading New Civic Hospital site design
There are two interesting (well, to some of us …) takeaways from regarding the landscaping starting around Bayview Station. First, that the landscaping is underway while major construction continues. But as soon as a patch of ground is finished active … Continue reading Pedestrians protected from overland flooding
When pressed by residents, the city will install some sidewalk planters during reconstruction. In my little patch of the west side, we’ve opted to push for curbed planters, which keep stray feet, and tires, out of the planting beds. Shown … Continue reading Community Gardeners loosed again
Sometimes corrugated metal can be applied to a house and look good. It requires skill. My eye was caught by this house in the civic hospital neighbourhood. It has the very traditional 1900 shape of two and half stories. The … Continue reading Update on a traditional shape
Way back in 2009, in the toddler days of this blog, I noted the curious street closure on Lanark Avenue a block north of Scott Street, where… Lanark Avenue itself performs a tight turn that cuts it off from what … Continue reading It’s the little things that (don’t) count
I was standing on the Booth Street Freeway overpass at Pimisi Station looking east towards the downtown. The Rideau Transportation Group — RTG — is constructing the western portal to the downtown tunnel. This spot is right behind the new … Continue reading When dogs count more than peeps
Down in the Big Apple, the City has completed the pedestrianization of the southern half of Times Square 2.0. The more famous northern half was already done and got world wide publicity. Predictions of carmageddon, as usual, did not materialize. … Continue reading Ottawa Thinking gives us Elgin 1.2
Remember the old rock and stone block retaining wall along the Bronson Escarpment; the one that holds up the parking lot for the Juliana Apartments? It was getting to the point that the iron tie-back hooks were no longer working … Continue reading Fake Stone Walls
If you head south from our west side stomping grounds, and follow the Trillium Line MUP as far as Prince of Wales … or drive south on Prince of Wales til just after the NCC Dows Lake parking lot … … Continue reading South of the West Side
Ottawa truly is the city that fun forgot. Or maybe the city that frets endlessly about being sued. In a park-short neighbourhood with three different multi-storey public staircases, no opportunity for fun may be indulged in. Someone might smile. But … Continue reading Friday Traveller: Active transportation in Montreal
Not yet quite a religious holiday, but observed by many who partake in the sacramental activities of the Force and the Sacred Blocks: Continue reading May the fourth be with you …
What is invading downtown sidewalks and snatching away space, replacing it with stainless steel boxes? Are any pedestrians safe? Are pedestrians and street beggars (err, sidewalk entrepreneurs) safe or will they be captured by some unknown power and put into a stainless … Continue reading Invasion of the Sidewalk Snatchers
The aqueduct that runs through LeBreton Flats leads to a pump house at Fleet Street below the downtown escarpment, very near to (Booth) Pimisi LRT Station. After powering the water turbines, the discharge runs through the Tailrace — also called … Continue reading Tailrace Clubhouse takes shape
